Maybe Next Time
by melli-elle
Summary: Genichirou, have you ever been in love?" "Isn't love for adults and teenage girls who squeel over boys on the tv?" "I didn't think so..." Shounen Ai, SanadaX? You find out eventually:P
1. Chapter 1

**Maybe Next Time**

**Chapter 1/Prologue**

I used to hike a lot up in the woods. It was fun. Especially at night, with the cool breeze filtering through the bushes and trees. There was woods behind my house back then, and it was so easy to just escape from my mother and her dreaded calligraphy lessons. I would of rather been with Grandfather at his dojo that was further down our road. But she wouldn't let me go unless I finished my calligraphy.

While I excelled at both calligraphy and kendo, it still always felt like I couldn't get my head around what I was supposed to be doing. That's why I hiked. It made me forget about all the confusing thoughts in my head, between my family duties, and my new best friend who kissed me two days ago…

Ok, I should elaborate. I was never one for friends. I got teased a lot, between the dorky haircut my mum insisted on, and the baby fat that no amount of kendo and hiking could get rid of. I got teased a lot by this kid in my class, Niou Masaharu, who was intent on picking on all the dorky kids. (Yes, that was me at the time). But then in the last year of elementary, Renji showed up. We became close pretty fast; though he was smarter then me, he was a lot more dignified then someone like Niou. I learnt that he liked to hike as well, and used to take him into the woods with me.

It had been a particularly hot day. We had stopped in my favourite clearing, chomping on bentos my mother had made for us. He'd been silent most of the week; apparently, something had happened that he'd heard about and didn't want to talk about it. I guess he wanted to talk about it more then I thought.

"Genichirou, have you ever been in love?" he had asked, and I'd looked at him like he was a complete freak.

"Isn't love for grown ups and teenage girls who swoon over the boys on TV?" My cousins did that all the time.

"I didn't think so," he muttered, and then there was silence. I didn't know why he had started the conversation, but it confused me, and I wanted more then anything to reciprocate the question.

I didn't need to.

"I wanted to know what love is, because I think I was in love."

"With who?" I asked attentively. The closest thing I'd ever had with love was the crush I'd had on the third grade teacher, and every boy in the class had had a crush on her, even Niou, though he'd never admit it.

"My old best friend before I moved here."

I blinked. Renji was my best friend at the time, so it confused me. I'd never had any friends before him, but I knew that boys could have girl best friends if they wanted them. Was that what Renji was talking about?

"But he didn't return the feelings. That's why I didn't feel bad when I left."

Apparently not. I was even more confused when he said that. At that age, I'd never heard of guys liking guys, because I'd grown up in a very traditional family that would not allow that talk to be heard in the ears of a youngster like me.

Renji was looking at me to see my reaction. I didn't know what kind of reaction he was hoping for; all I could do was blink. Finally, I found my voice again, and asked the question that was least pressing into my brain.

"So what's wrong then?"

Renji smiled, seeming to like my reaction. I was glad; Renji was my first friend after all, and I didn't really mind if he was in love with another boy. I didn't really understand that society didn't accept it. I didn't realise what it implied till later. At the time, he was just my best friend. So what if he'd been in love with another boy.

"Genichirou…" he started, putting his chopsticks down against his bento, looking at me. I smiled at him.

"It's cool, Renji. It's just me, you can tell me. Best friends, like you said, right?" I tried, and he smiled at me again, nodding.

"He tried to contact me. He wanted to meet me, wants to keep playing tennis with me. We were doubles partners before I moved," he just kept talking, repeating things, spilling out things, the deep bond they'd had between them, the knowledge of every little thing about each other that was there. And then Renji had had to move. It almost makes me want to cry when I think about it. And I hated crying, even back then.

When he stopped, he was crying himself. Small tears fell down his face, but he made no noise. Renji never did cry out loud; always to himself. I moved closer to him, wrapping my arms around my little friend, knowing that's what my mother did when I was hurt.

"Don't cry," I whispered, my mother's voice echoing in my mind. "Boys shouldn't cry. Because then girls wouldn't have anything special about them." Even as I said the words, it made me think that those words were probably silly in this moment. We weren't talking about girls, we were talking about Renji's old best friend.

Renji sniffed once, before moving to wipe away his tears. "Genichirou, if you ever fall in love, will you tell me?"

I nodded, not knowing what else to say. "I will, I promise. You'll be the first person to tell, even before the one I love."

Renji smiled again, looking up at me, and then I realised how close we were, and remembering the last thing that my mother did to calm me down, I pressed my lips lightly to Renji's forehead. His hair stuck lightly to my lips, and his forehead tasted of sweat from the hike and soap. Renji looked up at me, a bewildered look on his face, before smiling yet again, and leaning up and pressing his lips to mine.

At the time, I didn't know what to do. His lips were softer then his forehead, or my mother's cheek, or my grandmother's hand. I didn't know what to do, but I figured if this would comfort him, I'd allow this bit of comfort. I pressed back, my hands moving to rest on his arms gently. His hands moved to my own, and he curled his fingers around my palms.

We sat there like that, lips pressed together, hands holding each other as the sun began to sink lower in the sky. We only stopped when I heard my mother's voice echo through the woods, calling to us that it was time to come home. I pulled away, cool air rushing against our lips, our fingers still threaded together.

"You promise?" he asked again, and I nodded, a smile lighting up our faces.

"I promise," I whispered back, and as my mother's voice cutted us off again, we let go of each other's hands, grabbed our packs, and ran towards my mother's voice.

My first ever kiss, in my favourite hiding spot as a kid.

With my best friend, still madly in love with his doubles partner.

It was not that long until it was time to fulfill that promise.

* * *

A/N Ummm.. So I know I've got heeps of stuff that I could be updating right now, and Meo is gonna kill me for starting something new, but I finally got out of my ditch, and while I could go back and finish Zuki-chon's chapter on Yagyuu's fan fiction, I have to find it first… and I probably could finish chapter No.3 of Stuck or even Prince of Seidonku. And I even thought about doing a sequal to Gods and Alcohol Don't Mix… but here's this, anyway… It's not a one-shot, there will be more, so just… be patient!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

The first day of junior high was interesting, to say the least. Niou was there again, snickering as I tripped up the steps while looking for Renji. He had his possy with him; that tall brazillian kid and the shrimpy kid with pink hair that everyone called 'gay'. By then, I knew what gay was, and even though Renji and I had shared that one kiss, I didn't consider myself gay. I knew Renji was, because he'd had feelings for his doubles partner, who by then I'd learnt was named Inui, but I'd never actually had feelings for a boy, so I didn't think about it much.

Renji had been trying to get me to start tennis all summer, and I'd tried it once or twice, surprising even myself by how easy it was.

"Just pretend that it's your sword, and your in those old films where they slice open apples," Renji had told me the first time I missed the ball. After that, I hit the ball every time, except it was harder to aim. In Kendo, you aim to hit the apple, not where the slices are gonna land after you hit them.

But when I got the aim down, even Renji couldn't beat me, and it made me laugh.

Tennis was different from Kendo. Tennis was everything Kendo wasn't, with the distance between you and your opponent, the pause between strikes, the fast running, the tense anticipation when you hear the score; the team that stands by you on the side lines.

Tennis became addicting.

The first day of school, Renji asked me if I was going with him to try outs after classes, that afternoon, and all I could do was nod at him, knowing Kendo tryouts weren't for another week, knowing that they'd probably intersect anyway.

None of that mattered. Not when I stepped onto those courts.

"Freshmen, you'll be picking up balls, and…"

"No."

A soft, sweet voice filtered through the freshmen. It stopped Renji's mumbling under his breath, it stopped Niou and his posse's whispering when they thought the captain wasn't listening. Every single freshman, junior and senior turned to look at the speaker.

"What do you mean, no?" the captain, a tall bullish senior named Minada, said, looking at the small freshman. He was so short that I couldn't even see him from where I stood.

"I mean, no, I don't want to pick up balls. I want to play."

Then, someone shifted, and I saw him. He was indeed short, and slightly gangly. He was probably due for a growth spurt; that's what my mother says about Renji when we ask why he's shorter then me. He had long, curly blue hair, and the only reason I could tell that he wasn't a girl, was because he was wearing a boy's tennis uniform. I turned to whisper to Renji.

"Whose that?" I asked, my voice sounding more eager then I'd intended.

"That's Yukimura Seiichi," Renji replied, watching the boy with interested eyes. "I've seen him around the tennis courts. He's… words don't describe how good Yukimura is. It's not really surprising he doesn't want to be a ball boy."

"I don't blame him," I replied, looking back at the captain. "I bet we could probably beat the pants off any of those sempais."

Renji snickered beside me, as some of the juniors turned to look at us.

"Cocky one, aren't you?"

"Look at those gay haircuts."

"Probably pillow biters."

Renji started choking at that. I had no idea what that meant, but apparently he did.

The captain's voice cut through the snickers.

"You think you're so good, play me."

"Fine."

The girly freshman picked up his racket, and started towards courts, before turning back to look at the captain.

"You coming?"

All us freshmen watched with awed eyes as Yukimura completely annihilated the captain. Renji and I stood watching, Renji smirking and myself just another wide eyed freshman. I couldn't help it; this boy was amazing! Where did he get tennis skills like that at 12?!

"Are you done?" the boy asked the captain, who was now breathing heavily on the ground.

"Bastard," the captain answered, and Yukimura laughed lightly.

"No, not really. My parents were happily married when they had me. Now, whose my next opponent?"

All the seniors and juniors took a step away from him. I couldn't help but smile then, especially as Yukimura turned to look at Renji and I.

"Yanagi-kun, care for a game?"

Renji smiled, and nodded, before shoving past the still shell shocked freshman.

"He can't be that great…"

I turned my head to see the annoying white hair of Niou and his band of merry men.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Haru. He beat the captain in 13 minutes!" the bald boy said, watching hesitantly as Renji stepped onto the court.

"Yeh, but he's playing that dork, Yanagi. I mean, how good at tennis can someone be when they never even open their eyes?"

"He could beat you," I whispered, not taking my eyes off the my best friend as he spun the racket. Niou apparently heard me.

"Aww, would you listen to that, Sanada can actually talk! Sticking up for your geeky friend, are you?"

"Haru, leave the kid alone…" said Marui, the pink haired boy, pulling on Niou's shirt.

"No, Bunta, I wanna know why Sanada thinks he's better then us. Well, Sanada? Wanna play me? Is that it? I could beat the pants off you anyday…"

"Oi!" came a voice from the courts, and there was Yukimura, looking at the four of us. "Didn't the captain say that first years have to pick up balls? Get to it!"

"What makes you so special?" Niou hissed. "You're a first year too, just because you beat the little nose hairs off the captain doesn't mean that you deserve special treatment!"

"Actually, it does," Renji insisted, causing everyone to turn to him. "Rikkai tennis rules state that if someone challenges the captain, they either lose, and get kicked off the tennis team, or they become the tennis captain themselves. Only the captain is allowed to revoke the first half of the rule when they want to."

"That's bullshit," Niou hissed, glaring. "That means that girly kid is captain now?"

"That girly kid, Niou-kun, just beat the captain in…" Renji paused to look at the bald kid, Jackal. "13 minutes and 23 seconds."

Niou rolled his eyes. "I really didn't need to know the seconds, Yanagi."

"I'd happily play you, Niou-kun… or is it Haru?" Yukimura asked, from where he stood now next to Renji.

"Haru's for my friends, girl."

Yukimura's smile turned into a frown that made me want to back away. Marui and Jackal actually did.

"My name is not girl, Niou Masaharu. My name is Yukimura Seiichi, and if you don't believe that I am a boy, I'd be happy to prove it to you. I'm sure you wouldn't mind, especially with the rumours I've heard about you're little threesome."

Niou gaped at Yukimura. "Why I ought to…"

"Actually, Yukimura-kun, the chances of those three being in a relationship together is only 23 percent. The chances of Niou-kun in fact being gay are 72 percent, while the chances of Marui-kun being gay are as high as 95 percent."

"What about me?" Jackal asked hesitantly. I almost laughed. When referring to those three, no one ever picked Jackal as gay.

"Your percentage, Jackal-kun, is only 19 percent." Renji smiled. It creeped me out. I've never seen Renji like this before. I mean, he's always been smart, but this is insane.

"Good," Jackal sighed out, even as both Marui and Niou glared at him.

"Shutup Jackal!" they yelled in unison, and I couldn't help but let out a little laugh. That made everyone stare at me.

"What about you?" Yukimura asked, looking me up and down. "You're kind of shrimpy, but you look like the kind of shrimpy that just needs a growth spurt to get them going." He turned to look at Renji. "Who is he, Yanagi-kun?"

"Sanada Genichirou, Yukimura-kun. And I keep telling you to call me Renji," Renji replied, and I could of sworn I heard Niou snicker.

"Ah, of course. Sanada-kun, come play with me. Renji, make sure those other silly freshman pick up the balls. Oh, and call me Seiichi."

* * *

So… I played against Yukimura. He keeps trying to get me to call him Seiichi, but I don't. It's weird. I've never called anyone by their given name before except for Renji and my cousins, and I don't intend to start now. It's a sign of respect to call him by his family name. And I respect him way too much to call him by his given name.

Respect. It's such an odd thing. I mean, I respect my father. I respect my grandfather. I respect my uncles. I even respect my mother and aunts, which is unusual for a Japanese traditional household like my own. But I've never respected someone my own age, not like this. Yes, I respect Renji to some degree. He's my best friend, and he can beat me at tennis on a good day. So I respect him. But this respect is closer to the respect I feel for my family then it is to the respect I feel to Renji. It almost scares me.

Renji's always been able to tell when something was up with me. We had been hiking again when he asked me.

"Genichirou, you've been contemplating something. What is it?"

I looked at him, and he looked expectantly back at me.

"Well? Is this about Seiichi and his talking about putting us on the regulars? If your worried about it, I'm sure he can put you up against…"

"It's not that." I sighed, looking up at the sky. "What do you think Yukimura's like?"

"Like? What do you mean?"

"What kind of person is he?"

"Person? If Yukimura Seiichi could be described, it would be by himself, or perhaps his parents. The kind of people that would of known him since birth."

I sighed. Renji could be a pain sometimes.

"Fine, then be less specific. If you had to be hardly specific at all, what kind of person do you think he is?"

Renji looked me up and down, and I could feel his eyes bearing into me behind his closed lids. Freaky…

"You really want to know what I think, Genichirou?" he asked, and I nodded. "Alright. I think Yukimura has a sweet persona that he could turn on and off at bay. Underneath that person is a very strong leader, a very brave athlete who probably believes he could take on anything, and probably would." He looked at me closer. "But that's not what you're asking. What Seiichi needs right now is someone he can boss around. He can't have me; he sees me too much on his level of thinking. While he can see you on his level of tennis playing, if not one rung below, he can see you as more of a person who can take orders and do as he's told… More or less, the captain needs his vice captain, Genichirou."

I sighed. What was I supposed to say to that? Could I be Yukimura's vice captain? Was that possible? I know the captain can appoint whatever vice captain he wants as long as they are on the regulars… It would mean I would have to get onto the regulars, but I think I could handle that. I'd like to think I could handle that, and Renji and Yukimura both seem to think I'm able to handle it…

* * *

Miss_Ella: So this chapter's been sitting here for a while and I was trying to decide what more to do with it… And then just suddenly this morning, I decided… what the hell? That can be the whole chapter! Yay! So hopefully this will be ok… It's not exactly the same as the first chapter, but as time goes on, Sanada will have more to say. Sanada was based off my version of Sanada in a rp with Animeo or as I call her Meo-chan! So go check out her stories, cause I like to hopelessly promote!


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